PepsiCo Makes Largest Public Pre-Order Of Tesla Semis At 100 Trucks
Tesla has gotten its largest order ever of Tesla Semis yet. Reuters reports that PepsiCo has ordered 100 of the new commercial electric semi-truck. The move is part of the company’s drive to decrease their carbon emissions and fuel cost, a company executive confirmed on Tuesday.
PepsiCo joins a growing list of companies that have ordered trucks from Tesla. Wal-Mart has made an order, and so has J.B Hunt Transport Services Inc. Food-service distribution company Sysco Corp and Budweiser have also put in their pre-order. According to Reuters, there have been 267 reported Tesla truck orders so far. But there may be companies who have put in orders but haven’t publicized that fact.
PepsiCo plans to unleash the Tesla Semi on their ground shipping routes for snacks and beverages between their manufacturing and distribution centers.
They plan to deploy them within the maximum 500-mile (800-km) range that Tesla has guaranteed. They are currently figuring out which routes will be the best for testing the new truck. But they say that they see it working on more lightweight loads like snacks and on shorter runs of heavier beverages.
As Reuters reports, these Tesla trucks will join 10,000 semi-trucks in PepsiCo’s fleet.
The food and beverage conglomerate want to decrease their emissions by 30 percent, says Mike O’Connell, the senior director of North American supply chain for PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay.
PepsiCo just placed the largest order of Tesla semi trucks yet, outdoing AB InBev, which ordered 40 of the autonomous vehicles last week. https://t.co/VSnBHrKWc6 pic.twitter.com/Z86CMrlH8G
— The Counter (@TheCounter) December 12, 2017
According to the Tesla website, the regular model for the 300-mile range and 500-mile range versions will cost $150,000 and $180,000 respectively. The company also has a Founders Series model that’s priced at $200,000. So, as Electrek notes, the PepsiCo order could cost the conglomerate between $15 million and $20 million.
According to Electrek, at first, Tesla was charging $5,000 to reserve their trucks but that has changed to $20,000 per reservation for the regular model and the full $200,000 for the “Founders Series” truck. With no exact date of when they put in their order, it’s hard to estimate how much PepsiCo would have paid for their large reservation of electric trucks.
While the list of companies making pre-orders is promising for Tesla, as Inquisitr previously reported, some critics have been expressing concerns that Elon Musk is depending on advancements in battery technology that doesn’t existed.
